Pitchfork

Around 7 p.m. on November 14-- five hours before his birthday the next day-- mysteriously named Cloud Room lead singer J's Williamsburg apartment burned down. According to Jen Carlson, a friend of the band, "Apparently, a power surge in the building's electrical somehow turned on the [plugged in but turned off] space heater."

In an email to Carlson, J explained the situation:

"I don't really care about most of my stuff, but we'd been recording our next album just on our own in my apartment, and almost all of our amps, instruments, cables/mics/stands, Austrian jaw harp, ukelin, etc. blah blah blah, and my new MacBook melted. But as I was coming home from work after getting the call about the fire, I said my agnostic prayers that my little cat Wicked Annabella/Mipu/Midget-Puma survived and that our hard drive with all the new music survived.

"The cat jumped about 20 feet into the neighbor's yard and was okay. The hard drive and computer are going to the doctor's today...fingers crossed. Syd Butler, the bassist for Les Savy Fav [and head of Frenchkiss Records], is our and the Hold Steady's landlord and is a very cool man. I think he's gonna give me a lot of Fav tees to wear."

While we suspect that Williamsburg is probably full of dudes who wear Les Savy Fav t-shirts every day, it couldn't hurt for the neighborhood's residents to be on the lookout for J in case they are able to provide him with any assistance, because he most certainly needs it. He had no insurance for the lost items, his more complete list of which is included below (including the artistically vital "'Wonder Showzen' DVD & t-shirt"), and he isn't suing anyone.

There are, however, three pieces of good news (aside from the cat's survival, of course). First, the band's hard drive with all of the new songs was saved. Second, Carlson has set up a PayPal account "to help him get back on his feet." People interested in donating can do so here. And finally-- in very late-breaking news-- it seems that J might have found a new apartment in Greenpoint.

J's list of lost items:

"1. bass cabinet
2. MBox
3. nice Gibson acoustic guitar
4. Fender twin reverb
5. effects pedals/cables/mics
6. my MacBook
7. our hard drive with all the new songs [recovered]
8. violin
9. ukelin
10. really nice compressor
11. 'Wonder Showzen' DVD & t-shirt"